Textile mechanism



Det. 3l, 1935. E 1 ABBQTT 2,026,154

TEXTILE MECHANISM Filed Feb. 25, 1955` 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 6272-2 fao? motors.

Patented Dec. 31, 1935 PATENT OFFICE'` v TEXTILE MECHANISM Edward J. Abbott, Wilton, N. H., assignor to Abbott Machine Company, Wilton, N. H., a corporation of New Hampshire Application February 25, 1935, Serial No. 8,014

6 Claims. (Cl. 118-32) This invention relates to spinning and twisting machines and has for its principal object to provide an improved regulation of the speed of the twisting couple for the purpose of maintaining the strand tension uniform during the twisting operation. It is well known that in a twisting couple, such for example as represented by a spinning bobbin and its ring-traveler, the yarn tension is greatest at small diameters of the spinning package and smallest at the largest diameters of the package. Therefore, unless appropriate adjustment of the speed of the couple is made during winding, the speed of the couple must be limited to such value as will not create too large a tension at the small diameter of the package.

It is usually uneconornioal to employ variable speed motors for the purpose of increasing the speeds of the twisting couples of a spinning or twisting machine, since such motors are less elcient and more expensive than constant speed Various proposals have been made to introduce variable-speed mechanism in spinning and twisting machines to permit an ordinary constant speed motor to drive the twisting couples at adjustable speeds, but in general such arrangements have involved a substantial increase in the cost of the machine and have introduced certain complications in regard to resetting the mechanism to starting position. l l

Accordingly, principal objects of this invention are to provide spinning and twisting machines having simple and inexpensive mechanism for varying the speed of the twisting couples, with out requiring variable speed motors, and adapted for easy operation. A further object is to provide for quickly and easily setting the mechanism to any desired speed of operation, and especially to facilitate the resettingof the mechanism to the slow speed of twisting couple operation after the completion of a cycle of progressively increasing speed.

Other objects of invention and features of advantage and utility will be apparent from this specification and its drawings, wherein the invention is explained by way of example. I

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary front elevation, partly broken away, showing a portion of a twisting or spinning machine embodying the invention ;`and

Fig. 2 is a left end elevation of the machine of Fig. 1.

In the drawings, the invention is shown as applied to a ring spinning or twisting machine in which the twisting couples each consist of a rotatbuilder-motionmechanism, which may for ex- 10 ample include a horizontally reciprocating sliding rod 10, connected to the lifter rod by a chain I'I passing over a pulley 12. As indicated in the drawings, the bobbins are of the type described in my Patent No. 1,960,403, the packages l5 of strand being wound thereon by a traversing movement of the ring rail I8 up and down from one end to the other Vof the bobbin a number of times, to lay approximately cylindrical layers which finally attain the desired full diameter of the package. Accordingly the builder motion of the rod4 'I0 for reciprocating the lifter rods I9, is preferably such as to give the ring rail a constant stroke of reciprocation equal to the height of the package desired.

In place of the spindle driven bobbin II and ring traveler I2, there may be employed any of the other various forms of twisting couples which produce a twist of the strand by revolving it about a rotating receiver, for example, a driven flier or cap and a bobbin which is turned Vby ythe drag of the winding yarn.

A preferred form of means for changing or regulating the speed of the twisting couples in-f cludes a V-belt 20, which runs upon an upper V-pulley 2I fast on the shaft 22 of the roller I5 and upon a lower expansible V-pulley 23 keyed to the shaft 24 of an electric motor 25, which is provided for driving the several twisting couples. The left-hand side 23a of the lower pulley 23 is adapted to slide axially to the, left in Fig. 1 against the force of a spring 26, thus to allow the belt 20 to run at smaller effective diameters of pulley 23, and may be returned by the force of the spring 26 toward the full-line position of Fig. 1,

' to cause the belt 20 to run at greater effective diameters of the pulley.

i Referring to Fig. 2, the motor 25 is pivotally mounted loosely on a longitudinal shaft 21, so that the weight of the motor tends to pull down the shaft 24, spread the split pulley 23 and diminish the effective diameter of that pulley and hence the speeds bf the roll I5 and the various twisting couples. On the other hand, raising the motor 25 enables the spring 26 to force the movable half Cil of pulley 23 to the right, toward the full line highspeed position of Fig. 1, and thus increases the effective diameter of the pulley and speed of the twisting couples. In order to support the motor at various levels against the action of gravity, and thereby regulate the effective diameter of the pulley 23, there is preferably provided a rotatable cam 6B fast on shaft 21. This cam B acts to support a cam-follower roller 6| carried at the end of a lever` 62 which 'carries a link 63 supporting the motor at the axis of its shaft 24. The arcuate movement of the motor shaft 24 about the shaft 21, in a generally vertical direction toward and away from the shaft 22 of the pulley 2i, is thus controlled by the position of the cam 60. The vertical position of the motor governs the expansion of the pulley 23, as indicated above; the nearer the motor axis 24 approaches the shaft 22 the less the spread of the halves of expansible pulley 23 and the higher the speed of rotation of the upper pulley 2l and roller l5.

A manual control of the position of the cam 60 is preferably provided in the form of a handwheel 65 (Fig. 2) acting through a shaft 63, worm 51 and worm-wheel 68 to turn the shaft 21 on which the cam 6D is fastened. By means of this handwheel 65 the cam 60 can be turned to support the cam-follower 6| at the height corresponding to any part of the cam surface. The shape of the cam 60 is such that in one revolution the motor 23 is carried through a cycle of movement such as to change the speed of the twisting couples from low to high (preferably in a gradual manner) and then back to low (preferably with a relatively rapid movement).

For automatically turning the cam 60 in timed relation to the growth of the winding packages on the bobbins H, use is preferably made of the traverse motion of the machine, which for the bobbins I l herein shown is a reciprocating movement having a constant stroke appropriate to carry the ring rail I8 from end to end of the package formed on the bobbin.

Referring to Fig. 1, a vbell-crank member 15, freely rotatable on shaft 66, carries on one of its arms a roller 16, which engagesa depending nger l11 carried by the lifter-rod actuating rod 10. The other arm of the bell-crank -member 15 is in the -form of a weight 19. Thus, movement of the rod. 10 to the left, in lowering the lifter rod, rotates the bell-crank member in -a counterclockwise direction. A pawl 8D carried Vby the bell-crank member transmits this rotation to a ratchet 8| fast on the shaft E6, and accordingly rotates the cam '60 a small amount. Upon movement. of the rod 1U to the right in raising the lifter rod., the weight 19 restores the bell-crank member and pawl 80.

In this manner the cam 60 is rotated slightly at each full stroke of the ring rail, so that as the packages grow, the rate of drive of the twisting couples is increased.

By suitably proportioning the cam 60 and its operating connections, the cam may be automatically rotated in this manner from a predetermined low-speed position to a predetermined high-speed position during the winding of one set of packages. Then by rotating the cam a few degrees farther by means of the hand-wheel 65, the cam can be adjusted to the desired low-speed position for beginning a new set of packages. Or, if desired, theautomatic step-by-step movement of the cam 60 may be allowed to proceed past the highest-speed position ofthe cam and carry the cam quickly to its low-'speed position, whereupon the machine is stopped and new packages begun, either with or without manual adjustment of the exact low-speed position of the cam at the start. In either circumstance it is not necessary to carry the cam backward through the reverse of its main or operative movement of rotation, since merely rotating the cam in one direction through one revolution performs a complete cycle of adjustment of the speed of the twisting couples, from low-speed to high-speed and back to low-speed.

A preferred feature of the invention provides for automatically shifting the motor 25 axially so that the spread of the two halves 23a and 23b of its expansible pulley 23 is symmetrical with respect to the vertical middle plane of the upper pulley 2l, thus to maintain the belt 2l! in alignment. For this purpose, the frame of the motor 25 is loosely mounted on shaft 21 so as to slide thereon. A spring S3 acting against a collar 84 on shaft 21 is adapted to urge the motor frame toward the right in Fig. i, to bring a pin 86 on the motor frame up against the surface of a cam 81 which is fast on the rotatable shaft 21. The sur- 'face of 'this cam 81 is suitably shaped to allow the motor to move to the right in Fig. l at the rate of one-half the amount the expansible pulley 23 spreads apart as the shaft 21 and cam $0 rotate. Accordingly, as the two halves of the pulley 23 approach each other Yfrom their expanded condition (shown 'in dotted -lines -in Fig. l), the cam 81 moves the motor, motor shaft 2li 'and right-hand pulley half 2,3b to the left an amount equal to the movement which the left-hand pulley lhalf 23a moves to 'the right, the belt 20 being meanwhile in constant alignment with vboth the upper and l lower pulleys.

I claim:

1. A textile machine having therein a twisting couple, a moto-r, means for pivotally mounting the motor, means including a belt and a cooperating expansible pulley for driving the twisting couple L the belt Yandlexpansible pulley in the various angularly adjusted positions of the motor.

2. A textile machine having therein 'a twisting couple, a motor rmovably mounted with relation to the machine, means including a b'elt and a cooperating expansible pulley for driving the twisting couple at variable speed from the motor, the expansion of the pulley being governed by the position of said 'movably mounted motor, a cam adapted to adjust the position of the motor to regulate the speed of the twisting couple and a Ys econd cam adapted to shift the motor bodily 'in the directionL of its axis in an amount sufficient to maintain substantial alignment of the belt 'and expansible pulley in the various positions of the motor.

3. A textile Ymachine having therein a. twisting couple, a motor movably mounted with relation to the machine, means including a belt and a cooperating expansible pulley 'for driving'the twisting couple at variable speed from :the motor, rthe expansion of the pulley being `governed* by the position of said movably mounted motor, and a cam adapted to adjust the position of 4the-motor to regulate'the speed of 'the twisting couple,said cam having a shape adapted in one revolution TVO to carry the motor through a cycle of movement such as to change the speed of the twisting couple from low to high and back to low.

4. A textile machine having therein' a twisting couple, a motor, a variable-speed driving connection between the motor and the twisting couple, traversing mechanism adapted to traverse the twisting strand a plurality of times along the length of its receiver during the winding of a bobbin, means including a rotatable cam adapted to act on the variable-speed driving connection to increase the speed of the twisting couple, a connection between the traversing mechanism and the cam for imparting a step-by-step motion to the cam in timed relation to the strokes of the traversing mechanism, whereby as successive layers of strand attain increased diameters the speed of the couple is increased, andmanually operable means for turning the cam, the cam having a shape adapted in one complete revolution to adjust the variable-speed connection from its low speed of driving to its high speed of driving and back to its low speed of driving.

5. A textile machine having therein a twisting couple, a motor movably mounted with relation to the machine, means including a belt and a cooperating expansible pulley for driving the twisting couple at variable speed from the motor, the expansion of the pulley being governed by the position of said movably mounted motor, means including a cam surface adapted to adjust the position of the motor in a direction such as to alter the expansion of the pulley, and means operating in conjunction with said cam surface to shift the motor axially to maintain the alignment of said 5 belt inthe various positions of said motor.

6. A textile machine having therein a' twisting couple, a motor movably mounted with relation to the machine, means including a belt'and a cooperating expansible pulley for driving the twisting couple at variable speed from the motor, the expansion of the pulley being governed by the position of said movably mounted motor, a cam adapted to adjust the position of the motor to regulate the speed of the twisting couple, said cam having a shape adapted in one revolution to carry the motor through a cycle of movement such as to change the speed of the twisting cou- -ple from low to high and back to low, traversing mechanism adapted to traverse the twisting strand a plurality of times along the length of its receiver during the winding of a bobbin, and a connection between the traversing mechanism and the cam for imparting a step-by-step motion to the cam in timed relation to the strokes of the traversing mechanism, whereby as successive layers of strand attain increased diameters the speed of the couple is increased.

EDWARD J. ABBOTT. 3o 

